Has Machine Mart gone bust?

[LunarOne]

On 13th June I ordered a set of impact sockets from Machine Mart. The confirmation email I received said it would be ready to collect from my local post office on the 16th, and that I would get an email to confirm when I could collect.

Yesterday I had still not received any further email, so I tried to contact them on their Web order enquiry line. After 15 minutes of being on hold with a message saying I was in a queue, I switched to their customer services number, only to get a similar message. I gave up after another 15 minutes.

Today I have tried again, and none of their contact numbers even connect. There is no ring tone - I just get the call dropped or a call failure message. I have tried emailing them and get no response, but their website says nothing about problems, and it seems to be operating normally.

So has something gone wrong at Machine Mart? Have they ceased operations? I'm starting to get a little worried, as it wasn't a cheap socket set! https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/24-piece-12-sd-imp...

[Dan_The_Man]

Please note that due to high volumes of orders some deliveries may experience delays and we apologise in advance if these delays affect you.

[LunarOne]

Dan_The_Man said:

Please note that due to high volumes of orders some deliveries may experience delays and we apologise in advance if these delays affect you.

Yes, but that doesn't explain not answering the phones for half an hour one day and then the phones not working at all the next. And not answering emails. They say that their telesales department is working normally.

[parabolica]

I bought a parts washer from them on the 16th too; it just turned up. Home delivery mind, not click and collect. I suspect they are unmanned/reduced hours due to COVID.

[vikingaero]

Our voice telephony is provided by Vodafone and there is currently a regional outage. We can call each other internally but no inbound/outbound calls are possible,

[geeks]

LunarOne said:

Dan_The_Man said:

Please note that due to high volumes of orders some deliveries may experience delays and we apologise in advance if these delays affect you.

Yes, but that doesn't explain not answering the phones for half an hour one day and then the phones not working at all the next. And not answering emails. They say that their telesales department is working normally.

Also given everything that is going on you just didn't wait long enough, yeah it sucks that you were hanging on but wait times on the phones are through the roof everywhere!

[LunarOne]

vikingaero said:

Our voice telephony is provided by Vodafone and there is currently a regional outage. We can call each other internally but no inbound/outbound calls are possible,

Thanks - that makes sense.

I did get through to someone at Machine Mart this afternoon and they confirmed that all is well and to call them again if my goods don't arrive tomorrow.